


Thin Wall

by SpoopyChandelure, ulilshiiit



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - College/University, College, College AU, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, focus on dorm life, sharing a wall, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-23 01:04:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9633164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpoopyChandelure/pseuds/SpoopyChandelure, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ulilshiiit/pseuds/ulilshiiit
Summary: Lance is living the life. He has been accepted into the college of his dreams and is rooming with his best friend, Hunk. However, his nirvana was interrupted by Keith, the neighbor from Hell. Not only do the two hate each other the moment their eyes meet, but their beds are separated by a single thin wall.





	1. Day 1

Lance

After a grueling long road trip from his home state of Florida to Arizona, Lance and his immediate family stepped out of their RV and into the sun. After a huge stretch and groan, Lance pulled off his sunglasses and smiled at his new home. The dorms loomed high in the sky and were pure white; not a single chip of stray paint was on the building. From beside him, a slightly shorter female whistled and gave Lance a pat on the back that nearly knocked him over.  

Wow! I still can’t believe you’re enrolled in a nice looking college Lance!” she joked.  

Lance gave her a gentle shove back, “It wasn’t easy y’know. I actually _studied_ to get in.” In response, his sister stuck her tongue out. With his backpack hanging off of him, the brunette called out to his parents. “Mama, Papa, let’s go check in! I want to start moving in.” The two aforementioned parents nodded at their youngest child and followed him to the front desk of the residence life center while their two other children stayed with the RV.   

After gaining his room key from the junior at the front desk (whom Lance automatically flirted with) Lance and his parents climbed to the second floor and found his room. With anticipation, Lance had a hop in his step as he put the key in the lock and opened the door. However, there was already someone in the room and before a moment was spared, Lance launched himself at the large male. “Hunk!” The other male was clearly surprised by the sudden attack, but wrapped his arms around the Cuban.  

“Lance! Wow, you’re a lot scrawnier in person than on Skype,” Hunk joked. From beside him were an elderly couple who looked like Hunk. After the two boys released each other, the elderly man pulled Lance into a crushing hug.  

“My grandson has spoken a lot about you. He’s really excited to room with you.”  His wife gave Lance a hug, but said nothing. Her smile conveyed everything that she needed to say. As this happened, Lance’s parents hugged Hunk as well. Numerous family dinners were spent listening to their son talk about how excited he was to enter college with his friend whom he met online. At first they were afraid of the arrangement, but after talking to the Samoan, they quickly accepted him as part of the family and would send him gifts in the mail.  

Once the hugs were over, the García family made numerous trips getting all of Lance’s possessions into the small room.  

“Lance, are you sure you needed this?” His older brother frowned in response to a bag of seashells he unpacked. Annoyed by his brother’s nosiness, Lance forcefully grabbed the bag and put it in a drawer haphazardly.   

“Don’t go through my things. I can handle it. Besides, I really like these shells. You never know when they might come in handy for a project.”  

“You mean like these glow-in-the-dark stars?” His sister questioned. Lance groaned and pushed his siblings away from the boxes of miscellaneous items they brought in.  

“I said don’t look at my stuff! Mama!” He cried to his mother who was busy hanging some of his clothing and she just called back, “Leave your brother’s things alone. We’re almost done.” The two siblings pouted and tried to argue back but stopped once their mother gave them the death glare, so they simply pulled Lance into a sibling-crushing hug.  

“I’m gonna miss you…” His sister sighed, but as sisters are, something devilish came from her mouth immediately after. “Just know that your room will be in good condition as my walk-in closet.” Loud laughter filled the room with all García family members enjoying each other’s banter before one of the flock would be flying solo.  

With the majority of boxes unpacked and crushed for the recycling units, the García family proudly looked at their youngest member. Although she was proud of her child’s accomplishments and getting accepted into his dream college, Lance’s mom was finding it hard to say goodbye. Her arms wrapped around Lance and she pecked his cheeks nearly a hundred times. By this point, both her and Lance were trying (and failing) not to cry. The bond between a mother and son was strong between these two and anybody that should happen upon this scene would’ve become emotional. “I’ll call you every week Mama.”  

“No, two times a week. You’ll have a lot of chisme to tell me I’m sure,” she winked. The corners of Lance’s eyes crinkled and another loud laugh came out.  

“You know me too well.” He hugged his father next, “Thank you for taking work off to help me unpack. It means a lot.” His father huffed and ruffled Lance’s hair, something he hasn’t done in a while.  

“I’d do anything for you Lance. If you have any problems and need to come home, I’ll take off as many days needed and pick you up.”  

 

“Thank you for everything! I’ll see you soon!” Lance waved at the front door while his family drove off in the RV back to Florida. Hunk put one large hand on Lance’s back in comfort.  

“I love your family so much,” he sighed. Lance grinned at his roommate.  

“Your grandparents are too pure man.”  

“Ha, sure. My grandpa can totally kick your ass.”  

“Ok, yeah you’re right. But I mean c’mon his muscles are huuuuuge. Didn’t you say he used to be a wrestler?”  

“Yep. He kinda wanted me to follow that legacy, but you know how that ended up.” Lance nodded and looked at his new home once again.  

“Yeah, you decided to come here and be my roommate.”  

“You know I did!” Practicing online did not help the two at all with their secret handshake at first. The timing was perfect but the angles and precision they wanted was all wrong. “We’ll get the hang of this sometime.” Then the two went back into their room and Lance went back to unpacking his things. “I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining, but is there a reason why you brought so much stuff?”  

“I like my things a lot and I don’t trust Jaqui or Luis to keep their hands off my things.” There was a momentary pause while Lance put up a photo of his entire family on his desk, “I’ve also never been away from home. I hope I don’t get homesick so I tried bringing as much stuff that reminds me of home here. This is home now, after all.” Hunk smiled and laid on his bed, excitement for what the school year has yet to bring him and Lance evident on his face.  

 

Keith

Keith had turned up the volume of his music up the second he heard talking in the room next to him. The Get Up Kids blasted directly into his ear, erasing the irritating babble coming from next door. He was positive that the entire floor could hear the obnoxiously loud family emitting from the room. Startling him from his relaxed state, a knock at Keith’s door forced him to sit up and get down from his bed. Keith opened the door.  

“Hi, I’m your Resident Assistant, Shiro. I’ll be just down the hall and to the left if you ever need anything this year. You’re,” he checked his notes, “Keith, right?”  

Keith responded simply with, “yeah.”  

“So, I see you were lucky enough to get a single! Do you have more trips to take to finish bringing your stuff up?”  

“No, this is everything.”  

Shiro’s eyes widened slightly, but recovered and put on a friendly smile. “Well, I should keep visiting everyone. See you soon, Keith!” Shiro had that look that Keith hated to his core: pity.  

Keith shut the door (a little bit too hard) and looked at his room. “I guess it is a little bare,” he thought. Because it was a single, the room was small and only had enough room for a twin bed, a desk, and a small closet without a door. Keith’s only additions were black sheets and a red bedspread, a few clothes hung up in the closet with toiletries on the floor, and a backpack resting against his desk. He shrugged, and rolled back onto his bed with earphones in, blocking out the world once again.  

 

Lance

Hunk and Lance were busy playing Pokemon Sun and Moon against each other when a knock interrupted the battle. Lance quickly jumped off his bed and answered the door.  

“Hey, just stopped by to let you two know the there’s a floor meeting in an hour. Meet us in the Lion’s Den down the hall,” Shiro said. Lance gave Shiro a giant smile and looked back to Hunk who joined in the small meeting.   

“What’s the meeting about?” Questioned Hunk. Shiro gave no specifics but told them to be there or be square.  

 

Keith

Another knock interrupted Keith’s precious brooding time. “Keith, everyone’s meeting in the Lion’s Den in an hour. It’s mandatory just so you know. I’ll know if you don’t show up!” Shiro pointed his finger at Keith and looked a little stern. Keith simply nodded and shut his door. He could hear Shiro sigh through the closed door.  

 

An hour later, Keith tentatively stepped outside, watching as the stream of students on his floor made their way to the common room known as the Lion’s Den. He joined the flow and made his way toward it, keeping his head down and allowing his hair to fall into his eyes.  

“Welcome, everyone!” Shiro said cheerfully. He continued by talking about how he was always available if anyone needed to talk, but Keith checked out and studied the room. Finding the furniture and walls to be overly bright and colorful, he vowed to only be in this room if absolutely necessary. Who the hell thinks black, red, green, blue, and yellow makes for a pleasing color scheme? Keith pays attention again when Shiro says, “So, I thought we could all play a game to get to know each other a little. You all probably know it, but just in case you don’t, I’ll tell you the rules. We’re going to play two truths and a lie. Basically, someone says two things that are true about themselves and one thing that a lie. Then, the group works together to detect what they think the lie is. To demonstrate, I’ll start.” Shiro tapped a finger to his chin, then said, “One, I love the color purple. Two, I’ve been attacked by a bear. And three, the idea of parallel universes terrifies me.”  

Everyone began looking at each other. “Did he say he’s afraid of parallel universes?” Keith heard a girl standing in front of him say. She proceeded to raise her hand and proclaim, “the third one’s the lie.”  

“Okay, let’s take a vote. Who agrees with Allura that the third one's a lie?” Shiro looked around expectantly.  

No one knew what to think. It was quite obvious that Shiro had lost one of his arms; could it have been a bear attack that caused it? Eventually, everyone except Keith had raised their hand. It wasn’t that he necessarily disagreed with everyone, but he certainly didn’t want to participate.  

Shiro revealed that he had not, in fact, been attacked by a bear due to the fact that he has lived in Arizona his whole life. “I actually lost my arm in a car accident, so there’s that out of the way. And, yes, parallel universes scare the shit out of me.” The group looked confused as to how they were supposed to respond to that. A few snickered, a few looked sad, and rest stared blankly. “That was my turn. Hey Keith, you go next,” Shiro said and pointed towards him.  

“Fuck,” Keith whispered under his breath. “I really don’t want-”  

“Don’t care. Two truths and a lie.”  

Keith scrambled to come up with something. He decided to to hell with the dumbass game. “Red’s my favorite color,” he said while wearing a red jacket. “My hair is black naturally,” he said with black hair showing no signs of having been dyed. “And, I want to be here right now.”   

The group looked around awkwardly, not quite sure how to respond.“I’m pretty sure the last one’s the lie,” Shiro said while maintaining that annoyingly perky mood. “So,” Shiro glanced at his clipboard, “would Lance like to go next?”  

            “Of course I’d like to go next. Lemme bring the atmosphere up since Edgelord over here decided to lower it.” Lance thought over his truths and lie previously so he automatically knew what to say. “I’m great at surfing, I’ve been to California, and I think all the girls on this floor are super cute,” he quickly shot his fingers up and clicked them in the finger gun pose with a smirk.   

“Great, raise your hand if you think the first is a lie.” The majority of people raised their hands. “And the second?” A few people there. “Alright, Lance, is the group right? Which was the lie?”   

Lance’s eyes showed surprise as they got it right. “Yeah. Great job guys!”  

“How about Lance’s roommate Hunk goes next!” Shiro motioned to Hunk.  

Hunk took a moment before he responded, “Hi, my name is Hunk, so, uh, I’m really good at cooking, I’ve had to go to the hospital for a jellyfish sting, and I live with my grandparents. Lance, you’re not allowed to answer.” At the mention of his name Lance stuck his tongue out.  

“First one?” No one raised their hands. “Second?” A couple hands went up. “Third?” Easily the majority of people found this one to be correct. Keith continued to brood in the corner of the room, just waiting to be allowed to leave. He considered walking out, but he knew Shiro would just drag him back (and Shiro was ripped and tall).  

“The lie was the second one. I knew a guy who was stung by a Box Jelly though. Uh, he’s ok, so there’s no need to worry about that,”Hunk said while rubbing the back of his head.  

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt.” Shiro looked at his clipboard and asked Allura if she would like to go next.  

“Of course. First of all, I am 20 years old. Second, I am an expert in hand to hand combat. Lastly, I am a transfer student from England,” she stated elegantly.  

Lance sighed dreamily, “A girl after my own heart.” Keith felt bile threatening to force it’s way out of his throat and mouth.  

“Wow, okay.” Shiro asked everyone’s opinion and the majority decided that Allura had not been trained in fighting due to her clear English accent and slim, although tall, frame. Keith almost doubted she would be able to pick up his backpack.  

“Sorry everyone, but you have chosen incorrectly. Actually, I am not a transfer student. I am a Freshman here and have not attended university until this year.”  

“Oooh that means we might have some classes together,” Lance winked.  

Keith rolled his eyes, patiently waiting for the next person. Although he didn’t want to admit it, he was starting to enjoy this. Shiro called on someone named Katie to go next.  

“Actually can you call me Pidge? I’ve been going by that nickname since high school.”  

“Absolutely!” Shiro responded, nodding his head and writing it down on his clipboard.  

Pidge gave a smirk and said, “I have solid evidence of extraterrestrial life, my favorite musical is High School Musical, and my brother lives in this dorm too.”  

After some deliberation, the group decided that there was no way Pidge had found aliens. She looked smart, but no one’s that good. Keith, on the other hand, was at full attention. He has dedicated years of his life attempting to find evidence of alien contact. He stared expectantly at Pidge, waiting for her to say that she knows the secret to aliens.  

Pidge flipped her ponytail to the back and grinned, “You guys are smarter than you look. Yeah I haven’t found ET. I don’t even think he’s out there if I’m honest.”  

Furrowing his eyebrows, Keith went back to glaring at the ground. He decided two things in that moment. One he hated Pidge and could never trust her. Two, he might just drop out of this goddamned school.   

One by one, everyone on the second floor presented themselves with Shiro’s ‘fun’ little game and were dismissed. Lance and Keith practically skipped back to their room. Hunk opened the door while Lance’s eyes followed everyone that remained in the hall, he specifically wanted to see who he lived beside. His face dropped as he saw the emo from earlier enter the room, followed by the sound of the door being slammed.   

“We live next to Mullet Man!”  


	2. Night 1 Through Day 3

Night 1

Lance

Around half past midnight, Lance was getting to his most alert and awake state. It was no secret to Hunk that his roommate was a night owl as the two had skyped each other with their different time zones. He also was aware of how Lance’s ideas went from sane to insane when the moon was high in the sky, so it didn’t come as a surprise when Lance dangled himself upside down off the side of his high-raised bed. “Do you think any of our professors are nice?” Hunk smiled at his roomie’s question.

“We did check them on ratemyprofessor. I think that we just have to worry about how boring UNI101 is going to be. Even though it’s a requirement class, I’m really excited to take Ethnobotany. Plants are pretty cool man.”

“Yeah I know, but still I’m a little anxious.”

“You? Anxious? You feeling alright? I remember last weekend you were saying how you couldn’t wait for classes to start.” Lance stared at Hunk’s bed seemingly lost in his own thoughts.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry too much about it. Ugh I really shouldn’t have done this…” His head dizzy and all the blood at his head caused Lance to fall off his bed with a large thud. Accepting the fall, he happily smiled at the stars on the ceiling while his body fixed itself. Hunk gave Lance a worried look and sighed.

“I hope our downstairs neighbors didn’t hear that. Are you okay? Hunk hopped out of his bed and helped Lance get up.

“Thanks buddy.” Lance smiled at his best friend which grew to a devious grin. Hunk got back into his bed and leaned against the wall.

“Oh no. What are you thinking of do-AGH!” Hunk shouted upon a pillow being thrown at his face. “Did you just throw a pillow at me?” Lance hopped on his bed and grabbed another pillow (ammo).

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” he smirked then shouted, “PILLOW FIGHT!” The pillow he was grasping was promptly thrown to Hunk’s side, hitting his broad chest. Hunk laughed and threw the pillow back at Lance who dodged it. “Missed!”

“No fair! You’re smaller than me!” Lance stuck his tongue out at the Samoan. In retaliation, Hunk threw two more pillows at Lance, the force pushing Lance against the wall and creating another loud thump. He stopped momentarily and worried about their neighbor. This was stopped once Lance took all the pillows and made a battering ram with them, attacking Hunk with all the soft goodness. Both dark skinned boys fell over in the bed. There was a moment of silence in the room before they roared in laughter. Lance quickly gave Hunk a hug, reclaimed his pillows and returned to his side of the bed and covered himself up in his blankets.

During the hour between 1 am and 2 am Lance was calm in bed, reading various space articles online. When 2 came around, so did the late night sillies again.

“Mrrrrreoooow”. Hunk, who also was awake, sat up in bed and glanced in Lance’s direction.

“Did you hear that?” Lance didn’t move from his spot under his covers. “Mrrrreooow” the noise came again.

“Lance, buddy, is that you doing that or is there an actual cat outside our door?” He was about to get up and investigate when he heard a small snickering and knew. With a sigh, Hunk covered himself up with his own blankets as his eyes were growing ever so sleepy.

Pitch black and silence filled their small dorm room once more.

“Meeeeooooooowwwww”

“Mrrrroooooooooow”

“Meeeeeeeeeooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwww”

This continued for nearly an hour.

Day 2  
Keith  


Keith woke up, as he always does, at 5:30 in the morning. The difference today? A pounding headache and bluish/ black bags under his eyes. Keith’s bed sat right up against a wall that must be shared by the two loudest people in the history of the world. At first, it was just loud talking until around midnight. Then, things took a turn for the weird. There were numerous crashes, as though they decided that 12:52 p.m. was a great time to throw everything they owned on the ground.

Next, at about 2 in the morning, Keith heard cats meowing? Why? Did they take a cat into their room? WHY? Keith rubbed his temples, and jumped down from his bed. He threw on a shirt, shorts, and gym shoes, and headed for the gym.

He got back to his room at 7 and promptly took a shower. While he was out, he took the opportunity to pick up his textbooks for the semester. Since classes started tomorrow, he figured he may as well study. He hoisted the massive collection of books onto his bed, accidently hitting the wall. A few of them slipped down behind his bed, causing a loud sigh, and a couple grunts while he reached down to retrieve them.

“Finally some peace and quiet,” he muttered to himself.

A quick rapt at Keith’s door filled him with dread. Not only would he have to talk to someone, but they also interrupted his studying. With a sigh, he got down from his bed to answer it.

Shiro. Of course.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“I’m coming around to collect the questionnaires I gave everyone last night. You have yours done, right?”

“Yeah, one second.” Keith pulled open the top desk drawer and grabbed the slip of paper. “Here. That all?”

Shiro studied the paper, turning it back and forth a couple times. “Is this it?”

Keith furrowed his brows and nodded.

“Name: Keith Kogane. Where do you live: here. What is your major: Celestial Mechanics. What are your hobbies: N/A. What music do you like. You answered that with ‘why do you want to know?’ Favorite food: N/A again. What is one thing you most want to do: die. Dude, like, no.”

Keith shrugged, “I filled them all out.” There was no way he was going to tell this guy he didn’t even know all this random shit about him. He could feel himself getting defensive, prepping those mental walls for battle, just as he has a million times before.

“Yes, but I wanted you do it so that I could get to know you, and this doesn’t give me much to go off of. If I give this back to you, will you fix it?”

“I don’t have anything to add.”

Shiro just sighed and walked back to his room, Keith’s questionnaire in hand.

Lance  


After filling out the sheet Shiro gave him and Hunk, Lance ran to the communal bathroom and took a quick shower before going over to a room with the names, Pidge and Allura on it. He knocked on the door twice and prepared himself for the ultimate pickup line to use on Allura. The door opened and instead of the tall dark-skinned goddess, he found himself staring down Pidge.

“What do you want?” She demanded. Taken aback by her sharp tone Lance coughed and quickly regained his composure.

“Is Allura here? This room has her name on it.” Pidge looked back into her room and at Allura who was on her bed reading a textbook. There was a brief silence as Pidge disinterestedly stared at the Cuban.

“Yeah. She’s not here.” And the door was slammed shut on Lance’s face. He stood awestruck of what just happened. Lance sunk his head into his jacket and turned to go back to his room. Not noticing Shiro going over to Mullet’s room.

Keith  


Shiro didn’t even knock. He just bust open Keith’s door, carrying a bottle of fireball and two shot glasses.

“What the-”

“Shhh, you’re getting wasted. Don’t tell anyone. I don’t normally do this, but you need it.”

Keith swiped the bottle from his hand and took a gulp straight from it. “Fine.”

Shiro smiled and poured a shot for himself and another for Keith (in a glass this time). They both get completely shitfaced, just as Shiro planned.

“Tell me,” Shiro began, “why… whys the whole… moody vibe. Is’s o’vious you got sum tragic backs’ory the rest of us gotta unlock. So wha’sit?”

“I ain’t need t’tell you shit,” Keith bit back.

Shiro nodded slowly, then told him that he didn’t have to, but he knew he wanted to tell someone. Keith pouted at first, but then his eyes welled up, and words rushed out of him. “I jus’ don’t do people. They don’ make lossa sense to me. Like, I us’sa try to talk to ‘em, but I gave up, especially when I realized I was gunna haveta move around all the time in foster care. Then, I jus’ get mad ‘cause they don’ understand, and it makes it all worse.” Keith dropped his head back, kind of slamming it into the wall. “Fuck it. Jus’ fuck, man.” This was followed by a multitude of knocks on the wall that both Keith and Shiro ignored. Keith continued to allow his heavy feeling head to thump carelessly against the wall.

Shiro placed a hand on his shoulder, telling him that everything would be okay. They talked all night about life, the past, and the future. Keith had never opened to another person that much before. 

Lance  


Lance was busy sorting his supplies he figured he’d need for first day of classes (all the while sulking over Allura) when he heard numerous thumps on the wall. They were really loud thumps too so in retaliation he hit the wall as well. Hunk jumped from his spot in surprise and shot a look at Lance.

“What? He started it!” Then as if it was beckoned, another thump from the wall disrupted them. “See?! He’s trying to start shit with us! I am so not letting him win this battle.” Lance banged his fist against the wall.

“A battle? Lance you can’t be serious.” Lance’s face said otherwise. “Oh my God you are. Maybe you should stop and try to get some rest. Classes start tomorrow y’know.” With a sag of his shoulders and a deep sigh, Lance finished up packing his bag and settled into bed. He was just about to enter dreamland when another thud woke him up.

“GODDAMMIT MULLET!” He clenched his fist as hard as he could and banged against the wall in a familiar tune. He better pray he doesn’t have classes with me….

Day 3  
Keith  


“First day of class,” Keith thought to himself. He shoved his backpack as full as it was ever going to get and yanked the zipper shut. After heaving it onto his back, Keith began the walk to class. “I hope it all goes O.K.”

Keith was immediately struck by the monotony of it all. Perhaps it was an incorrect sense of excitement and expectations that stretched far higher than reality could reach, but Keith couldn’t help but feel a tad empty. It was only the first day, but he already felt stuck in a routine that would only get worse as the semester went on. The pointlessness of everything became like a heavy weight on his chest. By this point. He had almost arrived to his first class, but he still took a moment to stop and stare at a tuft of grass growing through the sidewalk between his feet. In the grand scheme of things, was his life as meaningless as that tiny, little weed?

Shaking his head side to side, Keith continued the last stretch of the walk, leading him to science building for his first college class.

Upon his arrival, Keith noticed his professor looking at him weirdly. Deciding it would be best to ignore it, Keith tossed his backpack down and plopped into a chair in the back. “Oh God, he’s still doing it,” he thought. “Stop.” Keith internal pleas failed to reach the professor as the plump, balding man made his way to Keith’s seat.

“Kogane? You had the senior project about the statistical stability of three or more hierarchal systems in celestial machines!” The professor beamed at Keith expectantly.

Keith just wanted to groan internally. So many things had gone wrong with that project. He messed up one of the equations near the end, throwing off the entire end result. The writing was less than satisfactory. Even the presentation of the project had gone poorly. The college scouts and teachers found it incredibly impressive, despite those flaws. However, those mistakes still ate away at Keith inside.

Suppressing a wince, Keith responded, “That was me.”

The professor stuck out a hand. “I look forward to having you in class.”

With a forced smile, Keith shook his hand, then watched him waddle back to the front of the classroom to start his lecture. 

Lance  


Lance’s first class began at 2:00 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so right as Hunk came back from classes, Lance was out the door. It perplexed Hunk as to why Lance wanted later classes, but was always met with, “I work better at night” and shrugs. His arms opened the doors to go outside, but it swung at him instead. No problem, saves him the energy, but instead of giving him the right-away, the person pushing the door went inside first, pushing Lance out of the way in the process.

What kind of rude ass- it was his neighbor. The exact same neighbor who bothered him last night with thumps on the wall and muffled sobs. Lance felt something: his insides bubble and boil when their eyes met. He desperately wanted an explanation to last night’s events, but he was on a time crunch, so he just did the ‘I’m watching you’ motion instead and hurried out the doors.

He made it to his Introduction to Astrophysics class five minutes before the professor made their way in. The class was of medium size, but was still located in a forum. As the professor walked in, Lance grinned upon seeing the vivid mustache which basically covered his face. Several of his peers snickered beside him, only to snap back to attention when the professor began to speak.

“Good afternoon class! Welcome to the world of Astrophysics where I, Dr. Coran, will do my best to teach you the basics of this wide concept,” his voice made Lance’s smile widen. He was expecting a very stern professor thanks to some unsavory comments on ratemyprofessor, but the professor in front of the class led him to believe that those accusations were wrong. Dr. Coran turned on the projector and a huge powerpoint with the words “ASTROPHYSICS :D” as its title let him know that those reviews were extremely wrong.

Nevermind, they were right. As soon as the lesson started, Lance’s head was thrown through a loop at all the equations Dr. Coran spewed. His wrist hurt from the speed and amount of notes he took on this day alone. Even though Dr. Coran was nice and explained things when asked, he just explained them with very long details that brought more questions than answers. By the time class ended, Lance was sure his wrist was about to snap off. A small whine came from him as he realized he had one other class after this one. Luckily for him, it was only a fifty minute class as opposed to the nearly three hour class he just came out of.

Finally the long day was over and Lance opened the door to his room and jumped on his bed with a long sigh. The room was still with silence as Hunk was nowhere to be found. Quickly Lance grabbed his phone and texted him in mild concern.

Ocean Man: hey where are ya?  
Hunky-Dory: Oh I’m at the library  
Ocean Man: studying already? geez your profs must be slave drivers  
Hunky-Dory: It’s not like that  
Hunky-Dory: I’m actually studying some vocab with a friend  
Ocean Man: is it a giiiirl ;)  
Hunky-Dory: actually yes  
Ocean Man: :0  
Ocean Man: holy shit dude congrats! who knew you were such a playa?!  
Hunky-Dory: It’s not like that!!!!! but thanks  
Hunky-Dory: i’ll see you in maybe an hour or so  
Ocean Man: good luck padre ;)  


The cell was haphazardly tossed to the side as Lance relaxed. His visage bore an endless grin for Hunk. Hopefully the girl he met treats him nicely or else she’d have to deal with him, which wouldn’t be pretty. Sure he was a flirt, but get on his bad side and well...no one wants that. Now that he was alone for the next hour he pondered what to do with his time. Suddenly an idea formed in his head and he grabbed his laptop.

Keith  


“What the hell?” Keith tossed his textbook and notebook off to the side of his bed so he could try to figure out what the noise was coming from the other side of that wall. Pressing his ear to it, Keith could make out a few faint sounds of something hitting something else. He wasn’t sure what it was until he heard- “EW!” Keith scrambled off his bed, almost falling to the floor. Seriously? He was just trying to study; he didn’t need this shit right now.

Keith raised his hand to knock on the wall, but then stopped. Feeling flustered, he considered the repercussions of this action. What if the guy doing it came over here and confronted him about it? What if Keith saw him in the hallway sometime? Both of them would know what happened. Shiro had finally convinced Keith to start opening up, but he wouldn’t be able to do that if he couldn’t even look his neighbor in the eye.

“Fuck it,” Keith whispered under his breath. He pounded on the wall, scowling. A surprised gasp escaped from the horny guy on the other side, followed by several thuds and the sound of a person falling out of bed. Keith smirked and tried to get back to studying that the peace and quiet he had known before had been restored.


	3. Day 4 through Day 5

Day 4  
Keith  


Late classes were annoying to Keith. He just wanted to wake up and get it done with so he could have the rest of the day to study and do whatever else he wanted. He didn’t get so lucky this semester. He had two classes on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, which were only offered from 10:30 to 11:45 and from 1:30 to 2:45. 

Still slightly pissed about his schedule, Keith swung open the door exiting the door building a bit hard. The person walking behind him went, “woah,” forcing Keith to recognize that he needed to calm down. 

Keith reflected on the drunken conversion he had with Shiro a couple nights ago. 

“You should really try to make some friends this year. You’ve never really had a friend before, have you?” Keith reflected on Shiro’s words. While he knew Shiro was right, it still cut deep. He decided he was going to change this year- if not for himself, then for Shiro. 

When he stepping into his first class of the day, he resolved to sit next to someone, rather than his normal routine of sitting alone in the back and looking just angry enough to keep people from sitting next to him. After a quick glance around the room, Keith noticed a familiar face. The guy from his dorm! 

Gathering his resolve, Keith took a deep breath and headed to the center front, and plopped down next to him. 

 

Lance  


“Hey, I’m Keith.” Lance heard the voice beside him and looked beside him with the best smile he could muster. Then he saw the unforgettable dark hair that would haunt his nightmares. His face brightened red, and he looked at his notebook in shame. Surely ‘Keith’ sat beside him to make fun of him. Still, he had to play it cool. Cool was his thing after all. 

“Uhh I’m Lance.” Fuck, he already fucked it up; nice going cool guy. He tried to look at Keith, but everytime he tried he could just feel his face burn, so his eyes were constantly trained on his notebook. “So, how do you like our RA? He seems pretty cool.” I can do this, just remain calm...nice and calm… 

Keith got a little flustered. “Why do you ask? Did he tell you something?” 

“Nah he didn’t tell me shit. I just saw him go into your room the other night. You two have history or something?” Even though it started as a simple question at first, Lance started to really think about it. Why would an RA visit someone during the first week unless there was a problem going on? Now he waited for an answer with a semi shit-eating grin. 

“Of course not. It’s nothing like that.” Keith tugged on the ends of his hair. “He was just welcoming me to campus and all.” 

“I bet he was ‘welcoming’ you alright. Just kidding! Don’t give me that face!” The dark skinned boy laughed at the other’s glare. “Anyway, I have a better question for you. What’s with your hair? Mullets went out of style in the 80’s. Did you not get the memo?” 

Keith’s mouth hung slightly agape. “And what, your shirt with cats in space has girls falling all over themselves to get a piece of you?” 

Now it was Lance’s mouth that hung open. “Excuse me?! This shirt gets mad love from everyone! It’s a total babe magnet.” He pointed to the pizza a tabby was holding. “Look it even has pizza! Everyone loves pizza!” 

“False! Pizza happens to be a disastrous creation that only leads to people feeling like shit.” Keith nodded his head once and looked indignant. 

Lance cocked his head to the side, “What. The. Fuck. Pizza is a godsend you heathen. Clearly you never tasted the heaven that is Papa Giorno’s in southern Florida. Their pizza and garlic knots are to die for.” And like that, Lance fell into a small trance just thinking about his favorite pizzeria. 

“Not if pizza would have wishing you were dead while in the bathroom for hours afterward.” 

“Holy shit dude, are you lactose intolerant?” 

“Obviously.” 

Lance pushed a hand through his hair. “Damn dude, I’m sorry to hear about that. Guess that means you can’t eat the deliciousness that is ice cream huh?” 

“Some things are worth dying for.”

Lance laughed loudly at the declaration. “I feel sorry for your poor stomach. My nephew has the same issue, so I kind of understand the struggle.” He laughed once more, all previous embarrassment gone, and he leaned back in his seat. 

After what seemed like forever, the professor finally stumbled in. He looked pretty scrawny and kept searching the room for something. His eyes were big and he just nearly jumped when he saw Lance’s legs poking out from his desk. 

“See! See this, class?!” he screeched. “This happens to be a prime example of the end of humanity as we know it!” The professor pointed to Lance’s gangly legs, unable to fit completely under the desk, and asked, “Are you trying to be the causation behind the destruction of the human race, faithful student?” 

The professor’s long-winded accusation metaphorically threw Lance at a wall. “E-Excuse me? How am I the destruction of humanity?” 

“My dear sir,” he said aghast. “One small misstep is all it takes to bring about disaster. You see, in another universe, not only did I trip over those unproportional limbs of yours, but I smacked my head on this here desk, causing me to bleed until my body is unable to function due to blood loss. I wish I could say that would be the end of the problems for the rest of humanity, but alas, that would only be the beginning. 

“Due to my overwhelming, incomprehensible levels of intelligence, it is only logical that I have a great future involving many new inventions. One such creation will be a vaccine stopping a deadly virus sweeping through the world. However, since I would be dead in that universe, I would be unable to produce the miracle cure to the devastating illness. Therefore, the entirety of humanity would come to end. 

“Do you hear that? You, dear student, were the cause of extinction of humans in another universe. Do you understand the gravity of this situation?! In yet another universe, the problems are only worsened! Not only do I trip over those uncontrolled legs, but I also fall directly into the computer sitting on the desk, pulling out the wires on the way down! Then, that girl’s water bottle there falls as well, electrifying everything. Do you know where we’d be then, faithful student? DEAD! WE’D ALL BE DEAD! Do you know why we’d all be dead? Because I would have died, and that computer would have been killed. In the universe where this happens, the latest advancements to agricultural studies were lost, leading to famine, which weakens people and leaves them vulnerable to disease. Therefore, everyone dies much faster, and more effectively in that universe. 

“Has this information penetrated your skull yet, dear sir? Do you understand the stakes in which you live? Are you truly prepared to play god and be held responsible for the extinction of your entire species? I should think not! I should think not! 

“It is most fortunate we reside in the universe we do. We shall all live to see another day. However, with you sitting in my path to the front of the room, the likelihood we all die within the year increases approximately 4.29 percent in this universe. Do those sound like good odds to you, my student? Don’t answer. I think not! Those odds are positively ghastly. To think that anyone would be satisfied with such a low chance of survival. Tsk, tsk. What a shame. 

“I expect you to keep you legs under your desk at all time, faithful student. We might all just survive this semester if you do not fail in the one assignment I ask of you.” 

Did that just happen? That just happened. Boom. 

For the first time in his life, Lance was truly speechless. His mouth was wide open and he stared at the professor for the longest time, unmoving, paralyzed. It was only when Keith nudged Lance that the spell was broken. Blue eyes met gray which pointed to his legs. Getting the hint immediately Lance pulled his legs under the desk (despite now being immensely uncomfortable). 

“Fantastic! Now let us calculate the odds of us surviving in this godforsaken universe thanks to the participation of this dear student’s compliance.” Everyone in the class groaned and wanted to die. 

 

Keith  
Getting out of that hell hole refreshed Keith to his very core, opening up a new wonderful feeling he wasn’t even aware existed. 

“Well, nice meeting you,” Lance said as he waved and walked away from Keith. 

Keith waved back, and began heading in that same direction to take advantage of the break before his next class to get grab lunch. As he walked, something odd managed to catch Keith’s attention. A tiny set of stairs leading to a metal door. Without realizing it, Keith gravitated toward the door, not sure why. After a second, he snapped back into conscious thought and forced himself to ignore the door … for now. 

Thoughts about that door swirled around in Keith’s head as he walked to the University Center to get lunch. Interrupting his thought process, Keith heard his name being called. Several feet away, a large guy waved, Lance standing beside him. “Try and make friends like you promised Shiro,” Keith thought. He joined them. 

 

Lance  
It was too late. He tried, he really did, but Hunk called out to Keith before he could stop him. Right as Keith’s attention was brought to the two of them, Lance pulled on Hunk’s ear and whispered, “What are you doing?” 

With a confused look Hunk replied, “Inviting him to eat with us.” 

“I see that but why?” 

“Because he looks lonely and is our neighbor?” Hunk was getting more and more confused as to why Lance was being so avoidant. Sure, him and Mullet Man shared a wall and have slightly gotten on each other’s cases before. But to not invite him for lunch? That just seemed cruel. Well, at least to Hunk anyway. Did I mention that he was hungry? ‘Cause he is. 

Lance facepalmed and prayed that Keith wasn’t heading to them. He glanced to where Keith was and-oh my God he’s there. Like, right in front of him there. “Uhhh hi Keith. Long time no see.” He pulled up some finger guns to hide his impending embarrassment. Wow, real fucking smooth. 

Hunk on the other hand, did not understand why Lance was so...Lance? Ignoring his clearly troubled roommate, he held out a hand for Keith. “So, you’re name is Keith? Good to know! Better than calling you Mullet Man. The name’s Hunk!”

Keith glared at Lance. “Mullet Man, huh? Nice to meet you, Hunk. I was just about to get lunch, so-” 

“Us too! You should join us! It’s much better to eat with a group than by yourself, wouldn’t you say?” His smile was as welcoming as the sun. Lance nudged Hunk slightly and frowned. He pointed to his cell which was the universal sign for, We’re talking about this later, and gave a fake smile to Keith. 

 

Keith  


It was working! Keith was actually talking to people, and not only that, but going to eat lunch with them! Back in highschool, he never would have done something like this. Finally, it felt as though he could make friends knowing he wouldn’t have to leave just a week later. Following Hunk and Lance, Keith made his way to the food court.

Once everyone got their food and sat down, Keith’s relaxed state vanished. He began fidgeting in his seat, unsure of what to say. Luckily, Hunk took care of that problem for him. “So, it’s pretty cool that you live right next to us.” 

“What?” 

“Yeah, sorry about the noise sometimes. Lance and I get a little crazy, we know.” Hunk smiled and the fry that Lance was chewing on dropped onto the floor. 

What. The. Actual. Hell. It almost failed to register with Keith at first. He thought, “That means… last night… that was…” Keith’s eyes darted between Hunk and Lance. He felt an intense blush working its way across his creeks. 

Before anyone else had anything to say, something small appeared in the empty seat next to Hunk. “Sup binch,” it called out. 

“Holy shit is that a gremlin?” Lance queried at the new member to the table. Keith stifled a snort, deciding it would be best to simply observe the craziness he felt was about to occur. 

“‘Wow, make fun of the short person. I see how it is, you tallbliest.” 

“Everyone, this is Pidge! We have Intro to Engineering together and I invited her to lunch,” informed Hunk. 

“Nice to meet you.” Keith smiled. 

Lance on the other hand, was utterly flippant. “We’ve met. You slammed a door in my face.” 

“Did I? Eh, you probably deserved it,” she shrugged. 

Lance clutched his heart and sighed dramatically. “You harm me, dear Pidgeon.” 

Hunk and Pidge started discussing the Engineering class they just had, leaving Keith and Lance to awkwardly avoid eye contact and eat lunch. Lance dipped the same fry in ketchup for nearly a minute. Accidently grabbing a napkin, Keith brought it to his lips until he realized what he was doing. He glanced at Lance, who thankfully was too busy with a fry to notice, and Hunk and Pidge who were staring at him. Shit. 

“The hell is up with you two?” Pidge asked. 

Lance turned bright red, suddenly desiring to eat the fry he had been dunking in ketchup for the past minute. “Nothing’s wrong. Why would there be a problem? There’s not one. I’m fine. Great! I’m just going to go to the bathroom. Be right back.” 

Hunk and Pidge were thoroughly confused by that exchange. Starting to regret taking Shiro’s advice and trying to make friends, Keith sputtered a weak excuse about needing to print something before his next class and left. If Shiro asks, he can just tell him that he tried, but unforeseen circumstances created tension that he refused to attempt to diffuse. “Am I really going to be able to survive this year living next to him? God, he’s defensive and annoying. He might just drive me crazy before the year ends,” Keith thought. 

 

Lance  
For the past minute Lance just stared at himself in the bathroom’s mirror, still not believing that what just happened just did in fact happen. “Why, oh why did he have to hear that?!” he groaned once more. Stupid walls, stupid Keith, stupid Hu- His phone started to vibrate so he looked at the screen. Well, speak of the most innocent devil in existence. 

Hunky-Dory: Hey man are you going to come back? Pidge is threatening to eat the rest of your fries.  
Ocean Man: OH HELLL NOOOOOO I AM COMING BACK  
Ocean Man: TELL PIDGE TO STAY AWAY FROM MY BABIES

There was no way in hell Lance was going to let someone who slammed a door in his beautiful face steal his fries. Making sure he didn’t harm anyone on his way out, he ran back to where his friends were. Before Hunk greeted him back, Lance stuck a hand out and looked at his fries. A considerate amount was missing, and his head turned to Pidge who grinned sadistically at him. More dramatic than the high school drama club members of that attended their college, Lance began to sing and motion with his hands towards the unimpressed female. “Pidgey, why did you eat my fries? I bought them, and they were mine. But you ate them; yeah you ate my fries. And I cried, but you didn’t see me cry,” his arms draped around Pidge who swatted him away. 

“Pfft they weren’t even that good. They were cold. Now stop complaining you should’ve known better than to run off like that.” 

“She kind of has a point dude. Fries in the open leads to hungry scavengers swarming them,” Hunk agreed. 

“Wait, ‘scavengers’? Hunk?! C’mon man! I thought we were bros!” 

Hunk threw his arms up in peace. “We are! But, well, Pidge was right. You were gone for a while, and they were getting cold.” Lance pouted in cold response and grabbed a fry. Shit, they really were cold and disgusting. Stupid Keith, this is all his fault. If he hadn’t made lunch awkward, Lance’s fries would be in his stomach instead of ready to be thrown away. With the biggest frown you’ll ever see on his face, Lance threw the rest of his food away. 

“Well I gotta head to class guys. I’m sure it’s gonna be real fun,” he sighed. 

“Lemme guess. It’s that dumb UNI101 that all us freshman have to take,” Pidge stated. Still keeping a tiny glare at her, Lance nodded. 

“Gross. I’ve had mine yesterday. Soooo not fun.” 

“That’s what I’ve heard...Time to suffer with the rest of our class.” 

As Lance predicted, no one wanted to be there. The class was pretty useless if you think about it. High school was basically this class so why, oh why is money being spent in order to keep this class alive. However, Lance’s mood was slightly lifted when he saw the long, silky, curly white hair he’s quickly come to admire. With a smile and slight blush he sat next to person who took care of that beautiful mane. 

“Hi there Allura. You may not remember my name from our brief meeting but I’m Lance.” He threw the ol’ Gonzalez grin at her and hoped for the best. 

“Oh, Lance,” Allura fake smiled, her eyes looking anywhere but him. “I-It’s good to know that you remember my name. We did only meet quite recently.” Lance smiled, happy that she’s even talking to him. It’s not everyday that a literal goddess acknowledges you. To keep the momentum going, Lance pulled of a flawless pun. 

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re quite alluring?” Allura couldn’t help herself, she giggled at how bad it was. 

“Oh my...That was so..” 

“Great? Genius? Original?” 

“Bad.” Lance’s shoulders momentarily sagged, but he quickly pushed himself out of Insecurity Central and into Suaveville by busting the finger guns out. 

“I know. Not every pun is able to lure in a round of applause.” At this point, Allura and a few other students couldn’t help but laugh. They were just so bad and therefore good because he knew they were. Lance smiled at the rest of his peers whom he brought a smile to and that was when he saw him for the third time today. His smile slowly turned to a frown and he felt his blood thicken. 

 

Keith  


Was there something boiling in the pit of his stomach? Keith was overwhelmed by a feeling he couldn’t place. Anger? Probably, he decided. Everything about Lance pissed him off- that dumb hair and his dumb face and the dumb way he flirts with anything that moves. He could just punch something right now. 

He didn’t realize his eyes were boring a hole into the back of Lance’s head until he turned around and looked slightly scared, pissed, and embarrassed all at the same time. 

Wishing that class would just start already, Keith decided the best course of action for this moment would be to just put his head down and wait for class to start. The professor should be here within a couple minutes anyway. 

 

The second class was dismissed, Keith rushed out of the class, practically running toward his room to escape the awkwardness. Upon his arrival, he instantly relaxed and felt he could breathe again. As usual, he began working on homework and studying. He got nearly 15 minutes of peace before- 

“HUNK! You bastard!” 

“Wh- what’s the problem there, buddy? What’s wrong?” he responded, panic seeping from every word. 

“You invited Mullet Man to lunch!” Keith could practically hear Lance throw his arms up. “It was so awkward!” 

Keith thought about putting on headphones and blocking all this out, but ultimately decided he wanted to hear this. 

“Well, you gotta tell me why, buddy. Keith seemed like an alright guy. What’re you getting so worked up about?” 

Lance took a few deep breaths. “You know that night you went to the library to hang out that girl?” Keith didn’t hear anything, so he assumed Hunk nodded. “Well, I took that opportunity to have a little…” He sighed and squeaked out, “Me time.”

“Oh God.” 

“And good ol’ neighbor Keith was listening in!” 

Keith wondered why Lance felt so comfortable talking to Hunk about this now, with Keith next door, but he realized something: his light wasn’t on. He had been using the light from the window to study and Lance probably checked around his door for light to see if he was here. Lance would have thought it was safe to talk openly because Keith wasn’t here, just like how he thought no one would have heard him that night. 

Hunk laughed for a second then said, “that’s kinda hilarious.” 

“No, it’s awful!” Lance squealed. “I can’t even look at him, let alone eat lunch with him!” 

“Guess I’ll have to tell Shiro the whole friend thing isn’t working out next time I see him,” Keith thought. He couldn’t stand it anymore; Keith grabbed his books and headed toward the library. 

 

Day 5  


He caught him in the hallway on the way back from class.

“Keith! How’re classes? Anything interesting?”

“Hey Shiro. Well, there was Calc-” Keith stopped because of the look of pure horror on Shiro’s face. If he hadn’t known differently, he might have guessed Shiro was a war veteran. 

“Slav,” he growled.

Keith just nodded slowly, staring at him with wide, worried eyes.

Shaking his head a couple times, Shiro said, “So, how has the friend making been going?”

“Look, I know I said I’d try, and I did, but I don’t think it’s going to work out.”

Shiro asked what happened. Thoughts ran through Keith’s head, trying to come up with an explanation for all this. “I tried talking to Lance and Hunk, the guys that live next to me, but I don’t think we get along. If I’m honest, Lance kind of pisses me off. It’s probably better that I stay alone.” Keith would just ruin whoever he was around anyway.

“Well, I suggest you try again, but if not, come hang out with me and Matt sometime. We can play video games or something.”

“Thanks, Shiro. See you around.” Keith waved and headed to his room.


	4. Night 5 Through Day 8

Night 5

Lance

Nighttime was clearly the best time for a shower. There was just something so refreshing about being clean at night and with a face mask on to exfoliate the skin to top off a long day. Lance sat on a bench in the communal boy’s bathroom and played some app on his phone to pass the time. Numerous guys would come into the room and get a little weirded out by someone just sitting in there, but would try to ignore Lance. From the corner of his eye he saw Shiro and some other guy who had the same hair color as Pidge walk into the shower area. Both of them had messy hair, but Lance hardly noticed that over the glistening abs Shiro displayed before hopping into the shower. Fuck don’t look. That’s fucked up man. Look back at your phone...Soon after the two hopped into their respective showers, Lance cleaned his mask off and ran back to his room.

“Hunk,” he semi shouted, full of energy. “HUNK!” Hunk jumped up from his hunched over position over his desk.

“I won’t come to class in only my underwear again!” He screamed and gathered in his surroundings. “Huh? Oh, Lance! What’s up, buddy?” 

Lance bounded over to his bed and spread his legs on the wall, “I just saw Shiro in the shower. He is RIPPED, like “holy shit” ripped. It was glorious.” A sigh escaped his lips and he briefly wondered if Keith was listening into his conversation. If so, he was a creep Lance decided.

“So, are you thirsting over our RA now? We’re only in our first week bro.”

Lance pulled his arms up defensively, “Me? Thirsty? Pssshhaaaaw.” His head cocked to the side in thought. “But honestly, if he was offering, I don’t know if I would be able to say no.”

“Gross dude, he’s our RA.”

“Our insanely hot RA,” the Cuban wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, making Hunk laugh. 

“Alright, that’s enough thirsting from you tonight, Lance. I can practically sense the hormones filling our room,” Hunk laughed, and Lance sat back in his bed. 

“Sorry, can’t help that our floor is filled with hotties.”

“Even Keith?”

Lance’s face fell to a grimace, “Except Keith.”

Day 6

Keith

Everything was already getting monotonous. Normally, it took at least 2 weeks for the routine of school to get so boring that the days began blending into each other. Keith struggled to remember what day it even was today. Thursday? That sounded right. 

Shit. All his classes were with Lance. 

Trying to push these thoughts out of his head, Keith put on headphones for his walk to class. It was sprinkling outside- a nice change from the consistent dry heat that normally suffocates Arizona. This cheered him up, breaking up the routine at least a little. Maybe this day wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.

Then again, maybe not. Keith was already seated in class, the same place he sat on Tuesday, when Lance walked in. After a quick glance at him, Lance threw his backpack down on a chair in the back of the room.

“Sorry man, but I was kinda sitting there,” one of their classmates said to Lance.

“Sorry,” Lance mumbled, dragging his feet to another desk. “Is this spot taken?”

The girl said that someone was sitting there.

Keith felt his heart pound in his chest as Lance weaved around the room. The class was rather full on Tuesday, and Keith began to doubt if Lance would be able to find a seat aside from the one next to Keith.

“Good morning cl- WHAT ARE YOU DOING TALL ONE!” Professor Slav screamed, waving his arms around in a panic. “You are trying to kill us two classes in a row! The last time a student did that, he brought a can of exploding soda into the room and then had the audacity to have his shoes untied! Can you believe that? And now this tall one is here, standing! Sit down, right now. I’m sure the black-haired boy in the front wouldn’t mind if you sat next to him. Right now, dear student. Immediately. Carefully.”

No, no, no, no, shit. Lance was tense. The muscles in his jaw were locked tight, and he looked like he wanted to punch something. Keith related to that feeling. Except, he was pretty sure he wanted to sock Lance, while Lance looked like he could punch anything and feel better.

“Great. Wonderful. Now that the tall one is not bringing everyone to their early graves, we can begin discussing…” Slav’s words droned on and on as Keith tried to pay close attention. Somehow, his thoughts kept drifting.

Lance pissed him off so bad. Clearly, he was far too full of himself, arrogant, cocky, and a flirt- the type of person that made Keith want to punch people. 

Everytime Lance got near him, or even just the thought of him came to mind, Keith felt something spiraling out of control in the pit of his stomach. Keith decided it had to be pure anger, despite the fact that the people who made him angry never elicited this response before. There was no other explanation. If he wasn’t mad at Lance, what could it be? 

 

Lance

Lance took notes during the entirety of Calculus, almost zoning out during the sections where Professor Slav would go on a tangent about parallel timelines and universes. The subject interested Lance, but the professor got really into it and would nearly work both him and several other classmates into a panic attack. He also tried to keep his mind off of Keith, but their arms would occasionally touch, sending Lance reeling back and nearly gluing himself to his tiny space bubble. Even though Keith hasn’t done anything too bad yet, the fear that the black haired boy would go and cause some trouble lingered in Lance’s mind.

Slav gave each row a paper to pass around, and despite the two males trying to avoid it, they somehow managed to brush their fingers against each other. Lance shot Keith a glare as a quick way to put the blame on him before passing the paper to the next table and winking at the recipient. He heard Keith sigh and just decided to ignore him for the rest of the class period.

After the hellish hour and fifteen minutes of being forced to sit next to Keith, Lance ‘Usain Bolted’ out of the classroom to meet with Hunk. “Hunk! You would not believe who I had to sit next to!” His hands did as much talking as he did when he’s riled up at the topic. 

Hunk gave a knowing grin but answered nonetheless, “Was it Keith?”

“It was Keith! I can’t believe my dumb luck….Now I have to sit by him all semester…” he sulked.

“Why?”

“Did you just ask ‘why’? Hunk, college seating goes as follows:” he cleared his throat before saying in a mock professional tone. “After the first week of classes is over, all seats claimed by a student is theirs and theirs alone. No one should claim that seat for the rest of the semester.”

“That’s really a rule?”

“Oh definitely,” Pidge said from her spot on the opposite side of Hunk, effectively spooking Lance.

“Holy shit where did you come from?!” He clenched the clothing above his heart and breathed quickly.

“I was always here. Maybe if you weren’t talking about Keith so much you would have noticed,” she responded and claimed a table for the trio. Lance ignored Pidge’s comment and proceeded to enter a line to a campus dining service. Pidge and Hunk followed him and they talked about their classes for the time being- that was until Pidge mentioned a carnival the school was throwing as a ‘welcome back’ party.

“How did you find this out?” Lance questioned, but was very excited by the look of it.

“It’s literally all over the school. I can’t believe how blind you are, or maybe they just need to be at your eye level, hmm?” Pidge mocked.

“Oh, who’s being the bully now, Short Stack?” He leaned over to be at her level, and she surprised the poor boy by grabbing his ear, pulling it extremely close to her face.

“Call me ‘Short Stack’ again and I will end you,” she threatened. Lance gulped at her ferocity and only after she was content was he able to escape her grasp, touching his ear to soften the dull pain. “So, this carnival thing, we should all go to it as a group. It sounds more fun to go together, that and I can totes kick your ass at ring toss.”

“You’ve got it Pidge,” Lance grinned, excited to hang out with a group this early in the school year.

 

Keith

Keith was seething. All his classes with Lance ended over an hour ago, but his stomach still felt like it was boiling. Why, of all people, did Lance mess with him so much? Sure, people pissed him off a lot, but that wasn’t hard to do. But why was it always Lance that sent his emotions out of control?

“Keith, right?” a voice called out, interrupting his thoughts. Keith thought he’d make it to his room without talking to anyone. He was wrong.

“Yeah, and you are?”

“I am Allura. If I am correct, we are both currently enrolled in UNI101, yes?” She gave a gentle smile, putting Keith more at ease.

“Oh right. Lance was hitting on you,” Keith said with a roll of his eyes.

She smiled and rolled her eyes too. “I actually wanted to ask someone in that class about that personality test we got assigned. Have you started it yet? I wasn’t sure how to submit it. Do you know how?”

Personality tests pissed Keith off. He never liked to be told how he thought. Being told who he was by answering 100 questions on any given day was even worse. What did they know? It was infuriating that people thought they could understand him if they just talked to him for a few minutes or saw his answers to a few pre-made questions. 

Attempting to hide his frustration, Keith tells Allura how he submitted it as calmly as possible. After he explained it, Allura surprised him by asking, “are you going to the school carnival on saturday? If not, I’m going with a group, and I think you should join!”

Shit. For Shiro, Keith responded, “Sure, sounds fun.”

“Fantastic! We’re all meeting in the Lion’s Den at 7. See you then!” Allura turned and waved as she walked off.

“What did I just agree to?” was the only thought circulating Keith’s head for the next two days.

 

Day 8

Keith

And he was right to dread it. A familiar voice echoed down the hallway from the Lion’s Den. Lance. He’d know that obnoxiously loud, annoying voice anywhere. Keith immediately turned to head back to his room, only to feel a weight on his chest. Shiro’s arm caught Keith mid step, keeping him from walking further away from Lance’s voice. 

“Dammit,” he whispered under his breath.

“No, no, no, you’re not getting out this that easily.” Shiro spun him around, forcing him to walk back toward the group waiting to go to the carnival. “You’ll be fine.”

Keith didn’t realize Shiro would be part of this group, but it was reassuring nonetheless. Keith hadn’t known Shiro long, but he was a calming influence. Almost like a brother, Keith felt protected around Shiro and also felt protective of him.

Keith pouted as he was basically dragged over to the Lion’s Den, but there was still a warmth and appreciation in his eyes. When it comes down to it, being dragged into this was better than the first 18 years of his life being alone.

The second Lance’s eyes fell on Keith, his jaw dropped. “What is he doing here?!”

That same anger flared the second Lance addressed him. Trying to calm down, Keith took a deep breath and counted. One, two, fuck it. “What’s your problem, dude?”

“What’s your problem?!” Lance cried, slowly getting closer to Keith, squaring out his shoulders and puffing out his chest. 

Keith recognized this stance far too easily, and reacted accordingly. Balling his fists, bending his knees, and balancing on the balls of his feet, Keith said, “You’re my problem! You piss me off! I didn’t do a goddamn thing to you, but you’re constantly mad at me! If you’re looking for a fight, I’ll give it to you!”

Hunk’s eyes widened and he tried to be peacemaker, but the two weren’t having it and continued to glare each other down. Pidge was looking at her phone when the argument broke out and quickly turned the camera on in case something bad were to happen. Evidence is key after all.

“Bring it, pretty boy!” Lance challenged, anger seeping into every word.

Just as Keith began to raise his closed hand, another grabbed his from behind. A stern, deep voice said, “cool it,” quietly.

Keith could feel his blood pumping through every vein, threatening to force into more rash decisions. “Let me go, Shiro,” Keith growled. “Let me beat the shit out of him.”

“Yeah, Shiro; let him go. I bet I can take him out with a single left hook.” Lance was so not going to let this go easily. “He looks pretty scrappy.”

Keith ripped his arms from Shiro’s grasp and lunged. “I’m gonna kill him!”


	5. Night 8

Night 8

Lance

Blue eyes widened to the size of saucepans as Lance prepared himself for the onslaught of fists. He might’ve been prepared physically, but mentally he was not ready for Keith to jump out of Shiro’s arms and straight up pounce at him. But before fingerless gloved hands could make contact with his face, Lance heard Keith yell and plummet to the ground. He stared, awestruck, at the power and strength of the person who could calm a wild beast. Silver hair moved out of the way to a pissed off Allura who then grabbed Lance and flipped him to his back with a loud thud as well. No doubt the people on the first floor must be wondering about what the hell was going on. 

Lance and Keith sat up from their spots on the ground simultaneously and began licking their wounds and pride. Lance was amazed by how neither of them spoke, fearful for what may come from Allura. She paced in front of them like a princess deciding a punishment for thieves. Her sandals stopped in front of them and she pulled them both up by the ears in record-breaking time. “What were you two thinking? Why are you fighting like schoolchildren?” 

“Well, technically speaking we are school children,” Lance grinned. Allura, not impressed dropped them both to the ground. Hard. The boy yelped and brought his legs to his chest, deciding to just stay on the ground. 

“What is your problem?” Allura demanded. “Do you two know each other from high school?” Keith looked at Lance who glared at him which made him glare back. They shook their heads at the same time. “Then why must you fight? We’ve only begun our year here and I won’t stand by and let you two constantly bicker for the rest of the year. Not only am I doing this for the two of you, but I am doing it for Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, and myself.” 

Lance looked to the rest of the group who had disappointed looks on their faces. Even Hunk looked a little disheartened at his roomie’s behavior. Lance frowned and shook his head before getting up. His face softened and he reached a hand down for Keith. “I’m sorry...Do you think we can restart?”

 

Keith

Narrowing his eyes and furrowing his brow, Keith grabbed Lance’s hand and allowed himself the help off the floor. Initially, his reaction to Lance’s apology was, “All this was your fault anyway? I only felt awkward! You’re the one who hated me for it!” However, that was not what this situation called for.

“Yeah, that’d be nice.”

Lance’s face looked remarkably soft and tender at those words. Keith figured Lance must really hate fighting. Unfortunately for Keith, he was all too used to it.

“Great!” Lance plastered that big, goofy grin back to his face “Because I want to win the biggest thing they have!” He marched confidently to the door, scooping up one of Hunk’s and Pidge’s arms on either side along the way. Pidge protested, then Lance said something about being a gremlin before they were too far to hear.

Oh no. Time to face Shiro. Keith’s chest hurt and he could feel every limb get heavier as the seconds ticked on.

“You know I have to tell the school about this.”

Keith nodded, balling up his fists.

“I’m just disappointed is all.”

Fuck. That comment tore through Keith’s conscious, obliterating all feelings calm. Biting down on his lower lip, he forced the tears welling up in his eyes to stay put, almost daring one to escape and roll down his cheek.

“This is the first strike. You have two more, got it?” Shiro joined the rest of the group, but Allura lingered. 

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Keith said while turning back toward the dorm rooms. 

“Wait,” Allura grabbed his shoulder. “You should still come with us.”

Keith scoffed, “No way in hell,” and took another step away from her.

Allura planted herself in his path, arms at her hips and told him that there was no way he was getting by her. Last time, she took him by surprise and Keith knew that he could take her. (At least, that was what he told himself.) Keith crossed his arms and sighed. With a twirl of her finger, Keith complied and turned back toward the door to leave. What else was he going to? Besides, he would have to face everyone eventually. They all did share the same doom.

 

Lance

The campus wide carnival impressed Lance. His high school had its fair share of mini festivals, but none were as big as this one. They actually had rides and a ferris wheel going and the stuff was free for the students. Even food! Without hesitation Hunk, Pidge, and him all grabbed some free hot dogs and cotton candy. 

“I can’t wait to wreck you scrubs,” he winked at his pals (well he wasn’t completely sure if Pidge found him to be a friend yet, but she was a friend to him). Pidge rolled her eyes and lead them to the ring toss table.

“Wanna put your money where your mouth is?” she challenged while finishing her hot dog. “I’m not really one for bragging, but I’m a pro at ring toss.” Lance scoffed at this. No one was good at ring toss. The trio each grabbed a set of rings and prepared themselves at the counter. On the count of three they threw the colored rings simultaneously.

“No fucking way,” Lance’s mouth was agape as he saw that the only ring to make it was Pidge’s. Pidge merely smirked at him and threw the rest of her rings. Each one made it snug around a bottle neck. Hunk and Lance both screamed while Pidge claimed her prize of a large green lion. 

“Told ya I was a pro,” she said and flaunted over to Allura to show her the cute lion. Lance pouted at Hunk who gently pushed him with a bright smile. 

‘Who knew? She kicked our asses though.” Hunk looked around the stalls and his eyes widened. He quickly brought Lance closer to him and whispered. “See that girl over there?” Lance looked in the direction nudged at and saw a girl with a short bob haircut, and a rich skin color. “We have ethnobotany together. Her name’s Shay and she’s really nice.” 

Lance’s eyebrows rose and wiggled, “You should go over and talk to her. She looks lonely.” Hunk looked away to hide his blush and shifted nervously. 

“I-I don’t know man. We just met and I don’t want to be bother.” Not having any of his best friend’s excuses, Lance called over for Shay. “Lance! What are you do-aah hi Shay.” Hunk’s face flushed at seeing Shay who tilted her head to the side.

“Hi Hunk. Are you ok? You look a little unwell?” Lance smiled at the two. Hunk was right, she’s really cute. Before he could be forced into a conversation, he bolted and made way for the opposite side of the carnival. He grabbed another stick of cotton candy, letting the sugary confection melt on his tongue, and wondered what to do next before the night was up.

 

Keith

Keith made his way to the carnival along with Shiro and Allura, but when they arrived Shiro saw someone and run up to him. Allura’s thoughts seemed elsewhere as she and Keith walked throughout the booths. 

“Do you want to join Shiro and the guy he was with?” Keith asked.

“Yes. Matt and Shiro are wonderful. Would you like to join?”

“No, I think I’m going to get some cotton candy, but I’ll meet up with you guys later!” Keith had no intention of meeting with the trio, but did want some cotton candy. Backtracking a couple booths, Keith picked up a bright pink floof of cotton candy and nibbled at it while wandering around. He didn’t blame her for wanting to leave; Keith wouldn’t want to be around himself either. Feeling awkward, he made his way toward the game section.

Just as Keith was about to decide that the carnival was useless anyway, a flash of blue accompanying a robust laugh caught his attention. Gross. Lance flirting with a girl forced bile into Keith’s throat. Pushing it down, Keith makes his way over there. This dick has been putting him through hell. Time for a little fun.

Keith made his way over to Lance and the girl in the varsity jacket as Lance was turned toward a game. He wasn’t half bad. He was actually pretty good at it; he had a knack for hitting those targets. Stopping to watch, Keith didn’t even notice when his breath caught and heart stopped. Lance moved with fluidity and grace which he didn’t seem to possess at any other time. Normally, Lance was too busy tripping over his own limbs to look graceful. Yet, in that moment, Keith could have sworn that he had never witnessed such joy on another person’s face and such beautiful concentration with just a tug of a finger. The way he smiled with such ease immediately removed any thoughts Keith might have once had and replaced them only with thoughts of him. 

“I won!” Keith was immediately disillusioned at the proclamation. Shoving a massive bite of cotton candy in his mouth, Keith scowled at Lance. “Here you-” Lance looked around. “Where’d Nyma go?” Lance’s face fell on Keith. “Here,” he spat, shoving the alien plushie he had just won into Keith’s face. Slowly, Keith allowed Lance to hand him the plushie. They both treated the poor green thing as though it would blow up at any time- Lance like he wanted to get away, and Keith like if he wasn’t gentle, for once in his life, it would kill him.

Lance began to walk away and before he realized what he was doing, Keith called out, “Wait!”

Turning around with eyebrows raised, Lance said, “yeah?”

“Uhh…” Keith panicked. Dammit, what should he say? He didn’t plan this far ahead. “It doesn’t have to be awkward like this between us. Almost everybody does it, okay? You don’t need to freak out around me.” Keith was most definitely freaking out as these words spilled out of his mouth. “It’s not like I’m going to tell everyone and they’re suddenly gonna hate you. Everyone loves you.” And it pisses me off, he thought. “Can we please just get over it already?”

Lance’s face, which started out as a glare, softened up and so did the rest of his tense body. “So, you’re really not going to tell anybody?” Keith nodded and the dark skinned boy sighed. “Thank God. I mean, yeah everyone does it, but I was more embarrassed that you had to hear it. We should probably try to figure something out so that doesn’t happen again…” He ran a hand through his short hair, ruffling it up even more in the process. “If you want, maybe we can talk about it, and calculus, over Starbucks?”

“Yeah, wanna meet up between classes on Monday?”

“I have class at 10, then a break.”

“Cool, ‘cause I get off for the day at 10:50 so we can meet there at 11.” 

Lance gave a big smile and plucked off some of Keith’s cotton candy with a wink before running off, “see you then!”

“Oh God. What did I just agree to?” Keith thought. “And why wasn’t I more pissed about someone stealing my cotton candy?!” Keith hugged his new alien buddy to his beating chest and made his way back to his room.

 

The second he got back, that alien plushie was catapulted into the corner of his closet. “Stupid Lance,” he mumbled. Keith tried to figured out what exactly made that boy so infuriating, but couldn’t quite place it. 

A knock at the door made Keith realize he had been pacing.

“Shiro!”

“Hey, where’d you go earlier? Allura thought we’d all meet up again.” Shiro leaned against the doorframe.

“Sorry, I kinda saw Lance, and we talked for a bit.”

Shiro’s eyes widened. “Really? How’d that go? I don’t need to fill out another report, do I?”

“No, no, nothing like that.” Keith felt his face get a little warmer, but wasn’t sure why. He decided the school was skimping out on the AC. “I actually think we can get along.”  
“That’s good to hear considering you wanted to kill him a couple hours ago,” said Shiro with a smirk.

“Don’t get me wrong, I still want to punch him in his perfect goddamned face, but-”

“Perfect?”

Shit.

“No, I mean, he still pisses me off, but it’s not like I’m going to hurt him or anything. Don’t worry, okay?” Keith fidgeted with the end of shirt. “Look. I have a lot of stuff to do tonight, so I’ll see you later.”

“Ri-ight.” Shiro winked. “See ya tomorrow!” 

Keith closed the door behind Shiro and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “What do you want, ugly?” he asked the alien plush in the corner. It’s empty, black eyes stared back.

 

Lance

Lance dove under his bed’s covers almost immediately after the room’s door had opened. He grabbed one of his pillows and held it tightly against him as he grinned at Hunk who took longer to get into bed. “Sooooooo…?” 

Hunk stared at Lance and tilted his head, “‘So’ what?” Lance groaned and buried his head in the pillow’s softness.

“So did you have fun with Shay?” He questioned. Hunk’s ears and neck reddened at the innocent question. 

“O-Oh um...yeah,” he shyly answered. “We had a lot of fun. I um even won her a small goldfish too.” His fingers pressed against each other and Lance smiled, happy to see his best friend act like a twitterpated high schooler. “I promised her that we’ll go into town tomorrow and get it a tank and food.” 

Lance sat straight up in his bed, accidentally hitting the wall in the process. He flinched momentarily and sighed when he heard a thump from the other side. “SORRY KEITH!” He apologized before turning his attention back to a more important matter. “No way! You’re going on a date?!”

“It’s not a date Lance! We’re just getting fish supplies. I used to care for some fish and thought it would be nice to help Shay keep it alive.” Lance looked at him with a raised eyebrow. 

“Uh-huh, and what’s the fish’s name?” 

Hunk’s eyes brightened up as he said the name, “Vox! Shay named it herself. It’s a pretty cool name, huh?”

“It’s something alright,” Lance replied. He yawned and stretched, “Well I’m going to get ready for bed. This day has been quite eventful.” Hunk agreed and the two prepared for the magical ritual which is sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> This was co-authored by zealouselement@tumblr.com. My tumblr is the same as my username - ulilshiiit. Hope you guys enjoy!


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